Haiti and the scandal of The Global Fund

Par Mischa Popoff
le 16 février 2011

Your hard-earned tax dollars have been pouring into Haiti since the earthquake last year and things have only worsened. Here’s a thought... maybe money and aid aren’t the answer.

It is now crystal clear that The Global Fund, although much ballyhooed, is totally corrupt. This is the high profile charity that pretends to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria and which benefits from lucrative, high-profile support from the likes of U2 front-man Bono, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and France’s First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. The United States and Canada have pledged to give a whopping $10 billion to this fund for various third-world improvement projects, including Haiti. But if the fund can’t even keep its own affairs straight, we must demand that our politicians stop contributing to it immediately.

And who is it that has pointed to the corruption of Bono’s, Gates’ and Bruni-Sarkozy’s fave charity? Some nasty American right-wing think tank? Nope. It was none other than John Parsons, the inspector general of The Global Fund. He examined just four of the 145 countries that the fund claims to help and found a whopping $34 million had been stolen!

Are these just isolated examples, as the fund’s executive director, Michel Kazatchkine, claims? Nope. The really interesting part is that Parsons can’t examine the books of the other 141 projects because the countries being helped won’t allow it. ‘Scuze me? Even the United Nations isn’t this corrupt. Well folks, hold onto your hats, and wallets, because it turns out they are.

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) distributes the money collected by The Global Fund. It’s an über-liberal UN bureaucracy with zero transparency. Nile Gardiner, a senior fellow at the American Heritage Foundation, characterizes the UNDP as “a large black hole.” Can you believe this? People are dying in Haiti and surprise! the UN is to blame.

Here’s a little tip for the bleeding-heart jet-set: if you see the letters U and N next to each other on any of the paperwork for your favorite charity, BAIL the-heck OUT! Hey Bono, Gates and Bruni-Sarkozy! I’m talkin’ to you!

Haiti doesn’t need charity. First it needs joint Canadian and American military rule to bring law and order. Sound cruel? The alternative to responsible military rule by responsible nations like Canada and the U.S. is more of the highly irresponsible military and criminal gang rule that Haitians have been subjected to since they were a French colony. Second, Haiti needs businesses, lots of ‘em. Only businesses create jobs. You’d think smart people like Bono, Gates and Bruni-Sarkozy might realize this. After all, they all owe their success to business. Why are Haitians any different?

Liberal bleeding hearts have to learn that you can’t “inject” prosperity into people. Prosperity has to be earned, not because it’s the fair way to go, but because history shows it’s the ONLY way to go. Even when medicine and food are donated instead of cash, they’re stolen by Haitian officials, sold on the black market, and the money all ends up in Swiss bank accounts. You feeling all warm-n’-fuzzy inside yet? Sadly, it's time for some realism.